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Court sets aside Bhu Bharati land survey contract

HYDERABAD: A Division Bench of High Court comprising Justice G. Raghu Ram and Ramesh Ranganathan on Tuesday found fault with and set aside the State government’s order in awarding Bhu Bharati land survey contract to InfoTech Company.

The Bench was allowing the writ petition filed by Capt. Lingala Panduranga Reddy. He complained to the court that the government violated its own tender conditions. The tenders were floated by the government inviting firms who have flying licence from the Ministry of Defence. The selected firms are expected to conduct aerial photography and prepare land records pertaining to ownership , boundaries etc., of land holdings. Initially, InfoTech was disqualified as it did not have the licence from Defence Ministry. A single judge of the court upheld the action of the government in this regard in another writ petition. After this judgment was delivered, in a meeting chaired by the late Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, decision was taken to allot two districts to InfoTech. This was challenged in this writ petition and the Bench speaking through Justice Ranganathan in its 48-page judgment pulled up the government. The Bench set aside the GO and directed to consider other three qualified firms and award the works afresh.